For poverty to be consigned to the history books it is clear that the governments of rich countries must give much more development aid than they do at the moment. To save millions of lives this money is needed now – to pay for basic heathcare and immunisation, clean water and education.

In addition to their existing budgets there are various innovative ways in which governments could raise additional money for international development. For example a simple stamp duty on sterling currency transactions of only 0.005% would generate as much as £3 billion of income every year. This stamp duty would be paid by the large international banks, many of which are currently making record profits. 

Other innovative ways to finance international development include the 'air ticket levy' and 'International Finance Facility'. 

ActionAid is part of the Stamp Out Povery coalition which campaigns to bridge the massive funding gap required to bring the world’s poorest people out of poverty.  Find out more about this work here.